Sassy's Note: Ooh, more PLOT. Fun stuff. For all of you action-type people, the romance will be on hold for a bit.

The World's Heart

Riku's hand shot down into his pocket at the first ring and pushed the button on the side. It stopped mid-chime and fell silent. He didn't stop to wonder who may be calling him, but turned his attention back on the screen and was again amazed at the number of files that had opened on the screen.

"Oh, wow," Demyx muttered, eyes flicking over the text that was at the top of the screen. Riku was reading that as well. It was apparently the statistics of Radiant Garden, and at the very top was exactly what Riku had been looking for.

King Ansem the Wise – Deceased

Riku stared at this. So Ansem the Wise was King of Radiant Garden. Okay, he'd expected that. What he didn't expect was for the man's title to be followed by the word "deceased." Ansem certainly hadn't coded that…

"Tron," said Riku suddenly. "Is there any way now to see what that self-operating program does?"

"Maybe," Tron replied. "I'll check the program and file updates for this particular document."

"Good. I think we've found what it does…"

Then, his phone went off again, and with a frustrated noise, he pressed the ignore button again. Kairi gave him a look.

"Riku, maybe you should answer that," she said with a touch of annoyance in her voice. He shook his head indifferently, flicking his eyes over to her briefly before returning them to the computer screen.

"It can wait." Hell yes, it could wait. After all the hours of going through tome after tome, they'd finally gotten into the files, and Riku wasn't planning on leaving until he had thoroughly studied them. He still had to use the knowledge to figure out how to get Sora back…

"What if something's wrong?" Kairi pressed on, hands on her hips and head tilted slightly to the side.

Riku sighed. "Kai, everything's wrong right now." Her expression dropped. "They will be fine for just a few minutes while we see what we can find in these files."

Harsh, but it was true. They had finally struck gold, and as far as Riku was concerned, this was top priority over whatever drama the others were dealing with. Sure, his opinion was biased, but did he care? Nope.

"Yeah," she conceded after a moment of chewing on her lip. "You're right. But, if they call again…"

"I'll answer it," he promised her, fixing his eyes back on the screen.

"Sooo," Demyx said uncertainly, obviously uncomfortable, "What is that program you were talking about, Riku?"

"It's a self-operating and activating program that's been running even when no one's been here to use the system." The silvered teen scanned the screen. "Look at this." He pointed to the top of the page. "Ansem the Wise would have died before he had the chance to change this information about the world."

"And it says he's deceased," Kairi muttered, and Riku could tell she had caught on.

"User Riku," Tron suddenly spoke up. "The program last activated this file three years ago."

"Three years ago," he repeated, looking first at Kairi, then Demyx. "Ansem died three years ago."

"So the program keeps track of-"

Demyx was cut off when Riku's phone once again began ringing. With an irritated growl, the silvered teen snatched it from his pocket, and with a look in Kairi's direction, he flipped it open a muttered a terse, "Hello."

"RIKU!!"

Startled, he jerked the phone from his ear a bit. What the heck? "Leon? Is that you?"

"Yes!" bellowed Leon's voice from the phone again. "Where the fuck are you!?"

"Ansem's study. We just-"

"We need you!"

"What's wrong?" he responded immediately. Damn it, he was such an idiot. He knew better than to ignore his phone if it rang more than once. He should have answered it on the first ring. It was just… he felt so close to getting Sora back.

"Fucking… Heartless!" Leon's voice came in a gasp, and Riku heard distinct fighting sounds, including the clang of metal and a battle cry he was fairly sure belonged to Cloud.

"I'll be right there," he spoke quickly into the phone and snapped it shut immediately. He turned on his heel and began running.

"Riku!" Kairi called after him, and he heard the footsteps of both she and Demyx following him.

"Heartless," he called over his shoulder. "The others are in trouble."

At a full run, it didn't take the three of them long to reach town, but they were completely out of breath when they got there. Panting, they looked around, sounds of battle all around them, but they couldn't see it.

"Leon!" Riku called. "Cloud!"

There was no answer, but, strangely, the sounds of the battle grew louder though they still saw no sign of anything out of the ordinary. Then, Cloud screeched an attack right by Riku's ear, and the teen ducked away in alarm. However, when he looked back, no one was there.

"What the hell is going on?" he asked no one in particular. Kairi looked just as lost as he was feeling. Demyx took a few wary steps forward, eyes slowly roaming their surroundings.

"They're here," he said softly. Another clang of metal on metal that sounded as though it was right on top of them. Riku reflexively ducked again as Demyx continued, "They're here. Just not here."

"What are you talking about?" he demanded of the ex-Nobody. Demyx met his gaze with serious ocean colored eyes.

"They're in a different realm, dimension, whatever you want to call it. They're right where we are, just there and not here."

"What does that mean? How did they get there?"

"I… don't know." The blond looked around them again, wincing when they heard another shout – Leon's this time – followed by a grunt of pain Riku couldn't place but knew it was neither Cloud nor Leon. "There's a way to get there, though. There has to be. Look for a… a portal-like thing. Like a break in the atmosphere. It'll be close."

"Fine, let's split and look for it." Nods of agreement, then Demyx took off running down one street, Kairi down another, and Riku ran for the marketplace. How could they have gotten into another dimension? And how…

Riku pulled his phone from his pocket and jabbed the redial button, holding the device to his ear as he jogged down the path. He was met with a depressing-sounding chime of denial. Cursing, he snapped the phone shut. Wherever Leon was, he couldn't be reached by phone. It had been too long – in Riku's mind at least – since he had gotten the call. There was no telling what had happened and he couldn't get to them!

He cursed a bit more and scanned the immediate area. Nothing. He could still hear the battle cries, though, and he followed Leon's shout and BANG of his gunblade. He had no idea where Kairi and Demyx had gone, and while his chest squeezed with concern for them, he knew they could take care of themselves.

He ran down another street, the sounds of battle abruptly quieting quite a bit. He didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He continued barreling down the street, though.

He wondered what that thing Demyx was talking about could possibly look like. Noticeable or easy to miss? Would it even have form or would they all just fall into whatever dimension the others were in? Damnit, this wasn't getting any easier. How could things have gone so wrong so fast?

It's time…

"Shut UP!" Riku yelled aloud, coming to a stop and twisting around furiously. He'd had enough of voices wandering through the dark realm. He didn't need any more now! And if it was insistent upon taking up residence in his head, it could at least help him get Sora back, or even show him how to get to Leon and the others!

To your left.

Riku looked left just in time to see a Heartless jump at him. He raised his Keyblade to block and the dark creature sprang away, enabling Riku to get a good look at it. It was the same kind of Heartless they had encountered guarding Sora's tomb back on Destiny Islands. The Heartless growled at him, canine-like muzzle curling back and exposing dark teeth to him. How did it get here?

It jumped at him, and Riku snapped out of his stupor. It fell easily to his Keyblade, and he watched in morbid fascination as it faded back into darkness. How… how!?

Now turn around.

Riku did so, hardly thinking about what he was doing.

Down the street. The first right.

He took off running down the street, not really knowing why he was trusting that voice, but it was the only thing he had to go by. Take a chance. It's what Sora would do.

The first right took him down an alley way, and that's when he saw it. Exactly like Demyx had said, there was a jagged, squirming cut in the air about a foot off the ground. It reminded Riku of a half-opened dark path, like the ones he used to use. The swirling dark void inside sparked and cracked, and Riku had a half second to wonder if it was safe to go through before the voice urged him.

Hurry.

Throwing his worries to the wind, he yelled as loud as he could, "KAIRI! DEMYX! I FOUND IT!!" Hoping they had heard him, he charged toward the opening, holding his Keyblade before him, and entered the portal.

It felt like going through a dark path as well. It was cold, and he could feel tendrils of something brush against him, but it didn't last long before he was in the realm that the opening lead too. It was dark all around him, but as his head swiveled around, he knew he had found the right place.

"Took you long enough!" Leon shouted at him, aiming a shot from his Gunblade a Heartless, the same type of Heartless that the silvered teen had just encountered. How did they get here?

"Watch it!" came a voice in his ear. He instinctively ducked, and Yuffie send her shuriken flying over his head to stick in another of the Heartless. With an amused giggle, she jumped over him to retrieve it.

Riku turned his head to the others. There was Leon, shooting the Heartless while dodging around. Not too far from him was Cid, cursing left and right while smashing at them with, what Riku assumed was, a metal pole. Yuffie was jumping around here and there; Tifa was beating the ungodly hell out of one unfortunate Heartless; Rude was hovering somewhere next to her, also using his fists. Cloud went soaring over Riku's head, glowing as he swung his sword and took out the creatures one by one. Aerith was standing close to Leon, casting healing spells occasionally and using attack magic when she wasn't healing.

It took Riku a moment to find Reno, but the redhead was there, fighting viciously with his EMR sparking. He was standing further away than everyone else, and it seemed to the teen that he was keeping his back to them. Great… he didn't need to ask what that was about.

Riku cleared his head of all thoughts and joined the fray. There were a lot more Heartless than there had been at the ruins. These were bigger too. Could they be evolving?

One of them pounced at him, and he just barely managed to jump away. It growled at him, crouching low to the ground as if to strike again, but Riku dodged to the side and thrust his Keyblade forward into the creature's neck. It howled and vanished in swirls of darkness, but another one just took its place. This would take a while.

"DANCE, WATER, DANCE!!"

Water rose from under the warriors' feet and took corporeal form. Riku almost smiled as he turned his head toward the rip in the atmosphere. Demyx stood just there, plucking furiously at his sitar strings. His water clones seemed to confuse the Heartless, which snapped at the figures, only to get a mouthful of water. He saw the feral smirk that curled the Nocturne's lips. He really didn't know why everyone was so surprised the blond made it in Organization XIII. He could truly act like the heartless being he had been.

"Riku!" yelled Kairi's voice, and the said teen whirled around. Kairi ran to him, her Keyblade out. She looked a bit nervous, so he reached out to her. She took his hand, allowed herself to be pulled flush against him, and looked around.

"What's going on?"

"I have no idea. We just have to take care of these Heartless." He looked at her, cyan eyes sparkling with a malicious glint. "Shall we get them together?"

She just raised her Keyblade in response.

Kairi wasn't a great fighter, Riku noticed. She lacked the skill and practice he and the others had, but she was doing pretty well with her hack-n-slash method. He stayed aware her as they fought back to back, turning occasionally to help if she was becoming overwhelmed.

It was a long battle. The warriors had grown past weary by the end of it, their movements sloppy and indecisive. The Heartless numbers had thinned, but they were still there, materializing out of the black void.

Demyx was the first to make a careless, near-fatal error. His attention remained diverted onto his water clones too long, and he failed to notice the Heartless that crept behind him. The massive creature pounced, taking the Nocturne down. The water clones fell away when the music stopped, and head swiveled in the direction of the former Nobody.

"Fuck, Demyx!" Reno yelled and made to rush to help the blond, but he was seized on either side by Heartless. They dragged him backward, and with teeth clamped around his left wrist, he couldn't raise his EMR to free himself. The redhead was jerked forcefully, and he lost his footing, falling back into the mass of darkness.

To be continued…

Sassy: Okay, so ending is abrupt, but I want the next chapter to really be the kicker so I'm like, hey, this is a good cliffie to leave all my lovely readers!

So, if you want the next chapter fast, I'd suggest reviewing. But that's only a suggestion.